A boulevard (French, from Dutch: Bolwerk – bulwark, meaning bastion), often abbreviated Blvd, is a type of large road, usually running through a city. These roads often replaced obsolete fortifications, hence the name. In modern American usage it often means a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and perhaps with roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery.